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Indirect  Benofits   of 

3ug:.r-Beet  Cultv.. 


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AGRICULTURAL1 

(XuD    OONGRKSS     I                                                                        CTTXT  A  T^Ti1 

1st  Session      }                                      SENATE 

LIBRARY.  Doco 

}    UNIVERSITY**0? 

1KNT 
76 

—OF  

CAtrlFORNIA. 

INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAR- 
BEET  CULTURE 


LETTER  FROM  AND  DATA  PREPARED  BY 
TRUMAN  G.  PALMER 

H 

CONCERNING  THE  INDIRECT  AGRICULTURAL 

BENEFITS  WHICH  ARE  DERIVED  FROM 

THE  CULTURE  OF  SUGAR  BEETS 


PRESENTED  BY  MR.  SMOOT 
JULY  25,  1911.— Ordered  to  be  printed 


WASHINGTON 
1911 


h 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.;  July  17,  1911. 
Hon.  REED  SMOOT, 

United  States  Senate,  Washington,  D.  C. 

MY  DEAR  SENATOR  :  In  accordance  with  your  suggestion,  I  inclose 
herewith  some  data  which  I  have  prepared  on  "The  increased  yield 
of  other  crops  due  to  rotation  with  sugar  beets/7  a  subject  of  vital 
interest  not  only  to  the  people  of  your  State,  but  to  the  Nation. 

To  handle  this  subject,  it  becomes  necessary  to  compare  the  crop 
yields  of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  and  the  regrettable  feature 
about  it  is  that  such  comparison  does  not  contribute  to  one's  national 
pride. 

A  recent  magazine  article  which  dealt  in  glittering  generalities  wras 
put  out  under  the  caption,  "The  United  States  feeding  the  world." 
One  of  the  statements  made  was  that  when  we  shipped  our  cotton  to 
Europe  we  sent  with  it  the  food  products  to  feed  the  starving  work- 
men who  made  it  into  fabrics  and  laces. 

One  phase  of  our  all  too  prevalent  vulgar  boastfulness  would  be 
cured  if  we  but  realized  that  Europe,  without  Russia  ("the  granary  of 
Europe"),  occupying  but  45  per  cent  of  our  surface  area,  tills  double 
the  number  of  acres  of  wheat,  rye,  barie}^,  oats,  and  potatoes  that  we 
till,  and  from  that  double  area  devoted  to  these  five  crops  their  farm- 
ers harvest  lour  times  the  number  of  bushels  that  our  farmers  harvest ; 
that  of  these  five  crops  Europe  produces  more  bushels  per  capita  for 
their  300,000,000  people  than  we  do  for  our  90,000,000  people,  and 
that  during  the  past  30  years  Europe  has  increased  her  acreage  yield 
of  these  five  crops  75  per  cent,  while  we  have  increased  ours  but  8  per 
cent. 

In  the  accompanying  data  I  have  attempted  to  make  plain  the 
fact,  so  well  understood  in  Europe,  that  the  remarkable  economic 
position  of  that  country  has  been  brought  about  by  the  introduction 
of  the  humble  sugar  beet,  the  leaf  buds  and  roots  of  which  in  the  time 
of  Augustus  Ctesar  were  used  as  a  food -for  slaves,  and  must  have 
been  considered  very  vulgar,  since  Csesar  delighted  to  compare  slack 
persons  with  boiled  mangel,  "betizare"  dicebat. 

Although  my  study  of  the  beet-sugar  industry  extends  over  a 
period  of  15  years,  during  9  of  which  I  have  been  secretary  of  the 
American  Beet  Sugar  Association,  it  was  not  until  I  began  making 
study  trips  in  Europe  that  the  full  value  of  the  industry  in  its  inter- 
related connection  with  general  agriculture  dawned  upon  me,  and 
since  then  I  have  devoted  a  large  portion  of  my  time  to  a  study  of 
this  particular  feature  of  the  industry. 

Anybody  will  admit  that  it  would  be  desirable  to  produce  at  home 
the  $180,000,000  worth  of  sugar  we  annually  import  from  foreign 
countries  and  our  island  possessions,  and  turn  this  vast  sum  into  the 
pockets  of  our  own  instead  of  foreign  farmers  and  laborers.  That  in 

272670  3 


4  :; '  j    INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF   SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

itself  would  be  a  consideration  of  great  economic  value  to  the  Nation, 
but  it  would  be  small  indeed  compared  to  the  indirect  benefits  to  be 
derived  if  we  produced  this  sugar  from  beets,  the  cultivation  of  which 
in  Germany,  in  rotation  with  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  and  potatoes, 
has  resulted  in  their  farmers  securing  from  the  land  which  they  devote 
to  these  five  crops  an  excess  annual  yield  worth  $900,000,000  more 
than  our  farmers  secure  from  a  like  area  devoted  to  the  same  crops, 
and  if  from  our  total  area  devoted  to  these  five  crops  our  farmers 
secured  as  great  a  yield  as  do  the  German  farmers  our  farmers  would 
be  richer  by  $1,400,000,000  a  year. 

Fifty  years  ago  Bassett,  in  his  work,  Guide  Practique  du  Fabricant 
de  Sucre,  said: 

The  manufacture  of  sugar  from  beets  is  one  of  the  most  important  elements  of  public 
prosperity.  Resting  on  agricultural  progress  and  the  wants  of  a  constantly  increasing 
population,  allied  by  reason  of  the  cattle  which  it  supports  with  the  production  of  meat 
and  bread,  based  upon  improving  cultivation,  it  renders  to  modern  society  the  greatest 
services,  at  the  same  time  that  it  attains  for  itself  the  highest  point  of  prosperity  and 
glory  to  which  any  industry  ever  had  the  ambition  to  aspire. 

Louis  Napoleon,  when  imprisoned  at  Ham,  in  1842,  said  of  the 
beet-sugar  industry  in  his  Analyse  de  la  Question  des  Sucres : 

It  retains  workmen  in  the  country,  and  gives  them  employment  in  the  dullest 
months  of  the  year;  it  diffuses  among  the  agricultural  classes  good  methods  of  culture, 
calling  to  their  aid  industrial  science  and  the  arts  of  practical  chemistry  and  mechanics. 
It  multiplies  the  centers  of  labor.  It  promotes,  in  consequence,  those  sound  princi- 
ples upon  which  rest  the  organization  of  society  and  the  security  of  governments;  for 
the  prosperity  of  a  people  is  the  basis  of  public  order.  *  *  *  Wherever  the  beet  is 
cultivated  the  value  of  land  is  enhanced,  the  wages  of  the  workmen  are  increased,  and 
the  general  prosperity  is  promoted. 

In  another  place  the  same  author  puts  the  following  words  in  the 
mouth  of  the  sugar  industry: 

Respect  me,  for  I  improve  the  soil.  I  make  land  fertile  which,  without  me,  would 
be  uncultivated.  I  give  employment  to  laborers,  who  otherwise  would  be  idle.  I 
solve  one  of  the  greatest  problems  of  modern  society.  I  organize  and  elevate  labor. 

In  1853,  when  the  French  Emperor  and  Empress  came  to  Valen- 
ciennes, a  triumphal  arch  was  erected,  with  the  following  inscription: 

SUGAR   MANUFACTURE. 

Napoleon  I,  who  created  it.  Napoleon  III,  who  protected  it. 

Before  the  manufacture  of  beet  sugar  Since  the  manufacture  of  beet  sugar 

the  arrondissement  of  Valenciennes  pro-  was    introduced    the    arrondissement.  of 

duced  695,750  bushels  of  wheat  and  fat-  Valenciennes  produces  1,157,750  bushels 

tened  700  oxen.  of  wheat  and  fattens  11,500  oxen. 

Grant,  in  his  Beet  Root  Sugar  and  Cultivation  of  the  Sugar  Beet 
(1867),  says: 

I  have  said  a  direct  net  profit  of  $20  per  acre,  because  it  has  been  found  in  Europe 
that  there  is  also  an  indirect  profit  on  the  beet  crop  in  the  large  increase  of  crops  suc- 
ceeding it  and  in  the  cattle  supported  by  the  pulp.  Experiments  have  conclusively 
proved  that  lands  now  yield  from  two  to  three  times  as  much  grain  and  support  from 
eight  to  ten  times  as  many  cattle,  in  the  beet-growing  districts  as  they  did  before  the 
beet  was  introduced.  The  great  beet-producing  districts  of  France  are  the  grain  dis- 
tricts and  the  cattle  districts  also.  The  three  branches  of  agriculture  always  coexist. 

If  our  farmers  were  made  to  know  that  by  proper  rotation  the 
culture  of  40  acres  of  sugar  beets  would  increase  their  yield  of  all 
other  crops  on  160  acres  from  20  to  80  per  cent,  you  could  not  build 
factories  fast  enough  to  care  for  the  beets  they  would  furnish.  Grad- 
ually they  will  find  it  all  out  for  themselves,  but  it  is  a  slow  process, 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF   SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE.  5 

Five  years  ago  a  beet-sugar  factory  was  erected  at  Chaska,  Minn., 
where  it  since  has  been  operated  each  year,  and  as  evidence  of  the 
time  it  takes  to  disprove  erroneous  impressions  and  absorb  the  truths 
which  Napoleon  publicly  proclaimed  a  century  ago,  and  which 
since  have  been  proclaimed  by  practically  every  European  agri- 
cultural economist  of  note,  I  quote  a  local  notice  which  recently 
appeared  in  the  Wabasha  (Minn.)  Herald.  This  notice  says: 

THE    SUGAR    BEETS — WHAT   IS   DONE   FOR   THE   LAND — ATTENTION,    FARMERS. 

One  of  the  best  crops  of  wheat  raised  in  this  vicinity  this  year  was  that  of  George 
Hauswedel.  The  wheat  was  a  fine  stand  of  good  quality  and  well  filled  out.  There 
were  14  acres,  and  the  result  in  thrashing  was  an  average  of  32  bushels  to  the  acre. 
This  comes  as  a  surprise  to  many  farmers,  since  the  field  was  planted  to  sugar  beets 
last  year,  and  the  impression  prevails  that  a  crop  of  the  latter  will  so  exhaust  the  soil 
as  to  yield  a  poor  crop  of  grain  the  next  year.  Mr.  Hauswedel,  however,  has  demon- 
strated the  fallacy  of  this  supposition.  We  understand  that  the  soil  was  given  no 
special  treatment,  and  no  particular  effort  was  made  toward  securing  an  exceptional 
result. 

You  see  that  with  a  factory  operating  in  their  midst  for  five  years 
the  erroneous  impression  still  prevails  that  sugar  beets  exhaust  the 
soil.  Notwithstanding  the  contrary  experience  of  all  Europe,  and 
of  this  man,  and  probably  many  of  his  neighbors,  I  have  no  doubt  but 
what  a  canvass  of  the  farmers  about  Chaska  would  show  that  the 
general  idea  concerning  beet  culture  is  that  beets  injure  the  soil, 
and  that  unless  they  harvest  "so  many  tons  of  beets  per  acre  at  so 
much  per  ton"  they  will  decline  to  grow  beets.  The  average  wheat 
yield  of  Minnesota  is  13.4  bushels  per  acre,  hence  the  yield  quoted 
above  was  139  per  cent  in  excess  of  the  average  wheat  yield  of  the 
State.  If  such  a  yield  were  secured  throughout  the  State,  it  would 
add  $84,000,000  a  year  to  the  wealth  of  Minnesota  wheat  farmers,  at 
85  cents  per  bushel.  Each  increase  of  1  bushel  of  wheat  per  acre 
in  the  State  of  Minnesota  will  add  $4,500,000  annually  to  the  wealth 
of  her  wheat  farmers.  This  result  at  Chaska,  which  is  reported  as 
being  a  general  surprise,  is  but  an  echo  of  what  one  hears  on  all  sides 
in  the  sugar-beets  districts  of  Europe  and  what  our  forefathers 
could  have  heard  over  there  50,  75,  and  even  100  years  ago. 

Last  September  I  visited  the  7,000-acre  Tachlowic  estate  at  Yenc, 
30  kilometers  from  Prague,  Bohemia,  one  of  the  imperial  estates  of 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  Sixty  years  ago  a  beet-sugar  factory  was 
erected  on  this  estate  and  since  that  time  one-third  of  its  cultivable 
area  has  been  planted  to  sugar  beets,  grown  in  rotation  with  other 
crops.  The  records  of  the  estate  show  that  for  the  60  years  since  one- 
third  of  the  area  has  been  devoted  to  sugar  beets,  the  remaining  two- 
thirds  has  produced  a  greater  tonnage  of  all  other  crops  than  did  the 
entire  three-thirds  for  60  years  prior  to  the  construction  of  the  factory, 
and,  in  addition  to  this,  the  stock-carrying  capacity  of  the  estate  has 
been  increased  100  per  cent. 

At  Hatwan,  Hungary,  60  kilometers  from  Budapest,  I  visited  the 
25,000-acre  estate  of  the  Barons  Alexander  and  Joseph  Hatvany, 
both  of  whom  are  agricultural  economists  of  high  repute  throughout 
Europe.  This  estate  is  equipped  with  the  largest  beet-sugar  factory 
in  Europe,  slicing  3,000  tons  of  beets  per  day  and  using  the  beets 
grown  on  50,000  to  70,000  acres.  While  they  were  producing  sugar  at 
a  small  profit,  the  great  inducement  in  operating  the  factory  was  the 
indirect  advantages  secured  through  beet  culture.  They  grow  3,000 
acres  of  beets  on  the  estate,  which  they  rotate  with  9,000  acres  of 


6  INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF   SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

wheat,  barley,  and  other  crops.  The  balance  of  their  beets  are  grown 
on  other  near-by  estates,  the  owners  of  which,  in  order  to  secure  the 
rotating  value  of  sugar  beets,  are  only  too  glad  to  produce  large  quan- 
tities of  high-grade  beets  and  sell  them  for  a  fraction  over  one-half  the 
average  price  paid  for  poorer  beets  in  the  United  States.  Their  largest 
contractor  furnishes  them  with  3,000  acres  of  beets,  which  average 
18J  per  cent  sugar,  and  the  price  paid  per  2,000-pound  t:on  was  at  the 
rate  of  $3.36,  our  money,  as  compared  to  the  average  price  of  between 
$5  and  $6  per  top  in  the  United  States. 

I  will  digress  for  a  moment  to  state  that  this  estate,  formerly  the 
property  of  Maria  Theresa's  favorite  prime  minister,  is  the  most 

Eerfectly  equipped  and  managed  property  I  have  ever  visited.  Aside 
rom  the  120-room  palace,  which  in  summer  is  occupied  by  the 
Hatvanys,  there  are  beautiful  homes  for  the  various  managers  and 
superintendents,  a  small  city  of  workingmeii's  houses,  innumerable 
barns  of  great  proportions,  machine  shops,  wagon  and  blacksmith 
shops,  dairies,  electric-light  plant,  ice  plant,  and  everything  else 
necessary  to  conduct  the  estate  without  calling  on  the  outside  world. 
A  private  narrow-gauge  ^  railway,  equipped  with  600  cars,  taps  every 
field.  The  estate  is  equipped  with  an  abundance  of  the  best  agricul- 
tural machinery,  including  numerous  steam  plows,  all  of  wrhich  is 
carefully  housed.  It  is  stocked  with  4,000  dairy  cows  and  work  oxen, 
which  produce  great  quantities  of  manure,  and  this  is  prized  as  highly 
and  protected  as  carefully  as  is  the  grain,  being  thoroughly  rotted 
before  it  is  spread  on  the  fields.  Every  pound  of  milk  is  shipped  to 
Budapest.  The  refuse  of  the  sugar  factory  is  used  to  feed  the  cattle, 
and  upon  learning  that  American  farmers  about  many  of  our  beet- 
sugar  factories  would  not  haul  the  pulp  away  as  a  gift,  they  asked  me 
to  look  the  matter  up  and  see  if  arrangements  could  not  be  made  to 
dry  it  and  sell  it  to  them  for  a  term  of  years.  They  raise  vast  quan- 
tities of  wheat,  but  never  sell  a  bushel,  seven  modern  flour  mills  on 
the  estate,  with  a  capacity  of  30,000  sacks  a  day,  turning  it  into  flour 
and  leaving  the  by-products  to  be  fed  to  stock.  The  same  with  the 
barley;  a  well-equipped  brewery  turns  it  into  beer,  leaving  the  by- 
product for  stock  food.  One  can  not  imagine  a  more  scientifically 
managed  property,  where  every  farthing  of  profit  is  secured. 

First.  They  secure  the  customary  profit  in  producing  raw  cereal 
products. 

Second.  By  preparing  the  raw  material  for  the  table  and  shipping 
nothing  but  what  is  ready  for  direct  consumption,  they  secure  the 
manufacturing  profit. 

Third.  By  Feeding  the  by-products  to  their  own  stock  instead  of 
wasting  or  selling  them  to  feeders,  they  secure  the  profit  from  dairying 
and  fattening  cattle. 

Fourth.  From  their  4,000  head  of  dairy  cows  and  work  oxen  they 
secure  an  abundance  of  manure  with  which  to  build  up  the  chemical 
condition  of  their  soil  and  make  it  more  productive,  thus  securing 
another  profit. 

Fifth.  By  operating  a  sugar  factory  which  slices  the  beets  from 
50,000  to  70,000  acres  of  ground,  they  secure  the  profit  derived  from 
sugar  manufacture  and  also  from  the  feeding  value  of  the  resultant 
by-products. 

Sixth.  By  growing  3,000  acres  of  beets,  they  secure  the  profits  of 
sugar-beet  farming. 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF  SUGAK-BEET  CULTURE.  7 

Seventh.  By  rotating  beets  with  9,000  acres  of  wheat,  barley,  oats, 
and  other  crops,  the  consequent  deep  plowing,  thorough  cultivation, 
and  aerating  effect  of  the  beet  rootlets  keeps  their  soil  in  perfect 
physical  condition  and  so  greatly  increases  the  yield  of  all  other  crops 
that  this  produces  the  greatest  profit  of  all. 

By  following  the  above  method,  they  are  able  to  extract  the  last 
dollar  the  estate  is  capable  of  producing,  and  however  long  this  method 
might  be  continued,  the  productivity  of  the  soil  would  be  maintained 
at  its  maximum.  It  reminded  me  of  Armour's  packing  house,  where 
he  said  they  saved  all  of  the  hog  but  the  squeal.  The  Hatvanys  own 
two  other  large  estates  in  Hungary,  one  of  15,000  acres,  both  equipped 
with  huge  up-to-date  beet-sugar  factories,  the  raw  product  for  which 
furnishes  the  inspiration  for  this  character  of  farming.  This  is  but 
one  of  many  equally  well-managed  European  estates  where  sugar 
beets  form  the  pivot  around  which  all  agricultural  operations  center. 

At  last,  by  personal  experience,  those  of  our  farmers  who  employ 
correct  cultural  methods  and  who  keep  a  record  of  their  yields,  are 
beginning  to  learn  what  our  scientists  and  economists  have  failed  to 
teach  them  concerning  the  improvement  of  the  soil  through  beet 
culture.  Numerous  letters  received  from  farmers  in  your  State>  as 
well  as  in  other  States,  show  this,  and  as  showing  that  these  bene- 
ficial effects  are  not  confined  to  any  one  section  of  our  country,  I 
have  produced  a  few  letters  from  each  of  several  beet-sugar-producing 
States. 

On  my  next  study  trip  to  Europe  I  hope  to  conclude  my  researches 
on  this  phase  of  the  sugar  question,  after  which  I  will  present  you 
with  something  more  than  a  boiled-down  statement,  such  as  I  am 
inclosing  herewith.  I  then  will  lay  before  you  and  your  colleagues 
and  before  the  country  statements  in  extenso  concerning  economic 
facts  of  record,  the  results  of  a  long  line  of  experiments  conducted 
by  the  most  prominent  agricultural  scientists  and  economists  Europe 
has  produced  during  the  past  century,  together  with  their  conclusions, 
a  record  of  my  personal  observations  in  Europe  and  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  statements  of  such  American  beet  farmers  in  the 
various  States  as  have  kept  records  of  their  yields  and  noted  the 
increase.  From  the  data  already  gathered,  I  am  confident  that  I 
will  be  able  to  present  such  a  quantity  of  indisputable  evidence  as 
to  prove  to  any  fair-minded  person  that  by  producing  our  sugar  at 
home  the  net  profits  accruing  to  our  farmers  through  the  excess 
yields  of  other  crops  would  exceed  by  many  times  the  total  value 
of  the  sugar  produced,  and  it  would  seem  that  an  industry  of  such 
potentiality  for  creating  wealth  should  interest  every  thinking  per- 
son, irrespective  of  party  affiliations  or  preconceived  contrary  ideas 
of  economics. 

To  the  end  that  we  may  increase  our  national  prosperity  and  at  the 
same  time  lower  the  cost  of  producing  our  food  supply,  it  would 
appear  that  something,  anything,  everything  within  reason  should 
be  done  to  force  or  cajole  or  coax  our  farmers  to  plow  deep,  to  cultivate 
thoroughly,  to  care  for  their  barnyard  manure  properly  and  to  estab- 
lish a  reasonably  scientific  system  of  crop  rotation,  whereby  the  field 
to  which  they  apply  their  energies  will  be  made  to  yield  as  much  or 
more  than  do  the  rejuvenated  soils  of  Europe. 
Very  sincerely,  yours, 

TRUMAN  G.  PALMER. 


$  INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SUGAR  BEET  ON  MODERN  SCIENTIFIC  AGRI- 
CULTURE. 

THE  FOUNTAIN  HEAD  OF  INSPIRATION  WHICH  LED  TO  DEEP  PLOWING, 
SCIENTIFIC  ROTATION,  INCREASED  FERTILIZATION,  THOROUGH  CUL- 
TIVATION, AND  DOUBLED  THE  ACREAGE  YIELD  OF  ALL  CROPS  IN 

EUROPE. 

[By  Truman  G.  Palmer.] 

The  production  of  the  food  supply  of  human  beings  ever  has  been 
and  ever  will  continue  to  be  the  most  important  consideration  of 
man,  and  he  who  makes  a  given  area  produce  a  bushel  and  a  peck 
where  it  formerly  produced  but  a  bushel  is  a  public  benefactor. 

Two  thousand  years  before  the  birth  of  modern  agricultural  science 
that  science  had  reached  a  high  level,  and  the  crop  yields  probably 
were  greater  then  than  they  are  to-day. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Christ,  Cato  the  Elder,  the 
Roman  statesman  and  patriot  who  tought  Hannibal  and  Hasdrubal, 
wrote  a  book  on  farm  management,  a  perusal  of  which  would  en- 
lighten the  average  American  farmer  to-day  and  teach  him  how  to 
increase  the  yield  of  his  fields. 

Cato  proclaimed  the  fundamentals  of  good  agriculture  in  his  De 
Re  Rustica  when  he  said: 

What  is  the  first  principle  of  good  agriculture?  To  plow  well.  What  is  the  second? 
To  plow  again;  and  the  third  is,  to  manure. 

To  the  farmer  who  kept  stock,  he  said: 

Plan  to  have  a  big  compost  heap  and  take  the  best  of  care  of  manure.  When  it  is 
hauled  out,  see  that  it  is  well  rotted  and  spread. 

And  to  the  farmer  who  had  no  stock,  he  said: 

You  can  make  manure  out  of  litter,  lupine  straw,  chaff,  bean  stalks,  husks,  and 
the  leaves  of  the  ilex  and  oak. 

A  hundred  years  after  Cato's  death,  Augustus  Caesar  made  frequent 
mention  of  beets,  which  then  were  one  of  the  principal  foods  for  slaves, 
while  the  leaves  long  had  been  used  as  an  auxiliary  fodder  for  stock, 
and  there  are  those  who  believe  that,  known  by  some  other  name, 
beets  formed  an  important  feature  in  Cato's  crop  system,  just  as  they 
did  after  their  value  had  been  rediscovered  20  centuries  later. 

People  forgot  Cato's  teaching,  and  when,  2,000  years  later,  Napo- 
leon Bonaparte  stepped  upon  the  stage  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  the  worn-out  soils  of  Europe  had  reached  their  lowest 
ebb  in  productiveness,  and  scientists  and  economists  were  in  despair 
because  of  the  insufficient  food  production  to  feed  the  ever-increasing 
population. 

The  genealogy  of  modern  European  scientific  agriculture  reaches 
back  to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  only  and  shows  that 
the  beet-sugar  industry  was  its  father  and  that  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
was  the  father  of  the  beet-sugar  industry. 

German  scientists  discovered  the  presence  of  sugar  in  the  beet  and 
perfected  a  method  of  extracting  it,  out  Napoleon  Bonaparte's  chem- 
ists and  economists,  after  10  years  of  scientific  research,  became  con- 
vinced that  by  growing  sugar  beets  on  a  field  one  year  in  four  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  thereby  was  so  greatly  increased  that  the  combined 
'yield  of  other  crops  on  the  same  soil  during  the  next  three  years  was 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE.  9 

greater  than  formerly  it  had  been  for  four  years,  and  it  remained  for 
Napoleon  himself  to  grasp  the  tremendous  significance  of  a  discovery 
which  could  be  made  to  serve  the  double  purpose  of  solving  the 
nation's  food-supply  problem  and  freeing  it  from  dependence  on 
Great  Britain. 

By  reason  of  Napoleon's  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  of  1806,  pro- 
hibiting the  importation  of  colonial  articles  and  establishing  the  "con- 
tinental system,"  the  price  of  sugar  had  risen  to  $1  ner  pound,  and 
mutterings  against  imperial  rule  were  heard  upon. all  sides;  but  these 
rumblings  in  no  way  affected  the  plans  of  Napoleon,  now  that  he  had 
become  convinced  of  the  indirect  advantages  of  beet  culture. 

On  March  11,  1811,  Napoleon  said  in  an  address  before  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce : 

Commercial  relations  with  England  must  cease.  I  proclaim  it  to  you,  gentlemen, 
distinctly.  *  *  *  I  am  informed  that  from  late  experiments  France  will  be  able 
to  do  without  the  sugars  and  indigoes  of  the  two  Indies.  Chemistry  has  made  such 
progress  in  this  country  that  it  will  probably  produce  as  great  a  change  in  our  com- 
mercial relations  as  that  produced  by  the  discovery  of  the  compass. 

On  March  18,  1811,  Napoleon  dictated  a  note  to  his  minister  of  the 
interior  in  which  he  said : 

The  minister  of  the  interior  will  make  a  report  to  be  sent  to  the  council  of  state,  in 
which  the  advantages  of  developing  the  manufacture  of  beet  sugar  will  be  included. 
All  steps  shall  be  taken  to  encourage  this  culture  and  if  necessary  by  modifying  the 
customhouse  tariff  for  a  period  of  five  years,  or  even  the  possibility  of  prohibiting 
absolutely  the  importation  of  colonial  or  foreign  sugars.  The  minister  will  take  steps 
to  make  trials  in  a  very  extensive  manner  and  to  establish  schools  for  teaching  the 
manufacture  of  beet  sugar. 

The  minister  will  apportion  among  the  different  departments  60,000  arpents  (90,000 
acres)  of  land,  on  which  it  will  be  necessary  to  grow  beet  roots  sufficient  for  the  entire 
consumption  of  France.  The  proper  officers  will  be  appointed  to  see  that  the  cultiva- 
tors deliver  their  proportions. 

The  minister  will  also  advise  the  cultivators  that  the  growing  of  beet  roots  improves 
the  soil  and  that  the  residue  of  the  fabrication  furnishes  an  excellent  food  for  cattle. 

On  March  25,  1811,  Napoleon  issued  a  decree  appropriating 
1,000,000  francs  ($200,000)  for  the  establishment  of  six  technical 
beet-sugar  schools,  compelling  the  peasant  farmers  to  plant  79,000 
acres  to  sugar  beets  the  following  season,  and  decreed  that l  i  From  the 
1st  of  January,  1813  *  *  *  the  sugar  and  indigo  of  the  two 
Indies  shall  be  prohibited."  (Extract  from  decree  attached  hereto.) 

On  January  12,  1812,  Napoleon  issued  a  decree  providing  that  100 
students  should  be  selecte'd  from  the  schools  of  medicine,  pharmacy, 
and  chemistry  and  transferred  to  the  technical  beet-sugar  schools  lie 
had  established  the  year  before;  that  150,000  acres  should  be  sown 
to  beets;  that  financial  inducements  be  extended  to  scientists  to 
further  perfect  the  process  of  extraction  and  to  capitalists  to  engage 
in  the  manufacture,  and  for  the  immediate  erection  of  four  imperial 
beet-sugar  factories.  (Copy  of  decree  attached  hereto.) 

As  a  result  of  the  perception,  determination,  and  power  of  one  man, 
the  industry  which  was  to  revolutionize  modern  agricultural  methods 
not  only  was  created  but  within  two  years  was  established  on  an 
extensive  scale,  as  is  shown  by  the  report  of  Napoleon's  minister  of 
the  interior  at  the  beginning  of  1813,  in  which  he  said: 

During  this  year  the  manufacture  of  sugar  which  is  extracted  from  the  beet  root 
will  give  us  7,700,000  pounds  of  this  staple.  It  is  prepared  in  334  factories,  all  of 
which  are  in  actual  activity.  *  *  *  Nothing  has  been  neglected  to  naturalize 
this  staple  at  home,  and  the  conquest  is  finally  assured. 


10  INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF   SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

For  centuries  Europe  had  been  cursed  with  sagebrush,  gravel-pit 
farming  methods,  such  as  our  low  crop  yields  demonstrate  still  are  in 
vogue  to  a  great  extent  in  the  United  States  to-day,  and  while 
Napoleon  compelled  the  peasant  farmers  to  grow  beets  whether  they 
wished  to  or  not,  his  scientists  and  their  successors  developed  scien- 
tific agricultural  methods,  taught  the  French  farmers  how  to  cultivate 
beets  and  other  crop^s  properly,  and  as  the  beet  sugar  industry  spread 
to  other  nations,  their  scientists  and  economists  vied  with  the  French 
in  this  work,  until  now,  in  most  portions  of  Europe,  everything  is 
farmed  properly,  as  is  shown  by  their  superior  crop  yields. 

At  the  time  sugar  beets  were  introduced  in  France,  European 
farmers  were  plowing  but  3  to  4  inches  deep,  but  the  beet  being  a 
deep  rooter,  compelled  them  to  adopt  deep  plowing — Cato's  first 
principle  of  good  agriculture — and  as  the  benefits  of  it  came  to  be 
recognized,  deep  plowing  became  the  custom  in  the  culture  of  all 
crops. 

European  economists  observed  that  following  beets  the  roots  of 
cereal  crops  which  theretofore  had  drawn  nutriment  from  but  3  to 
4  inches  of  soil  now  followed  the  interstices  left  by  the  millions  of 
decaying  beet  rootlets  which  were  broken  off  when  the  beets  were 
dug, "and  by  drawing  nutriment  from  double  the  depth  of  soil  they 
doubled  their  soil  productivity  without  increasing  their  acreage. 

European  agriculturists  found  that  the  frequent  hoeings  necessary 
to  the  production  of  a  beet  crop  rid  their  fields  of  noxious  weeds, 
and  thus  the  full  strength  of  the  soil  went  to  the  crops  they  were 
raising,  instead  of  being  drawn  upon  to  maintain  a  growth  which 
was  worse  than  useless. 

As  a  result  of  sugar-beet  rotation  in  Europe  it  was  observed  that 
where  formerly  it  had  been  necessary  to  allow  the  exhausted  soils 
to  lie  fallow  every  fourth  year  in  order  to  rest  them  and  to  tear  out 
the  thick  growth  of  weeds,  they  now  could  secure  a  heavy  crop  each 
year. 

Once  inaugurated,  the  growing  of  sugar  beets  rapidly  increased 
and  soon  became  one  of  the  most  important  industries  in  France, 
that  country  since  having  produced  27,000,000  metric  tons  of  beet 
sugar. 

During  the  time  that  France  has  been  producing  27,000,000  tons  of 
sugar  for  home  consumption  and  for  export,  worth,  at  4  cents  per 
pound,  $2,364,000,000,  our  imports  of  sugar  have  risen  from  50,000 
to  2,500,000  tons  a  year,  and  during  that  period  we  have  imported 
67,000,000  tons  of  sugar  at  a  cost  to  the  Nation  of  $4,600,000,000. 

We  raise  and  export  the  wheat  from  6  acres  of  ground  and  use  the 
proceeds  to  purchase  sugar  which  we  could  raise  at  home  on  1  acre. 
To-day  it  requires  the  gold  we  receive  from  all  the  wheat  we  produce 
on  11,000,000  acres  to  purchase  abroad  the  sugar  we  could  produce  at 
home  on  less  than  2,000,000  acres,  and  by  so  doing  cease  tilling 
9,000,000  acres  or  use  it  for  other  purposes. 

The  sugar  we  import  contains  no  fertilizing  elements,  while  each 
bushel  of  wheat  carries  with  it  17J  cents  worth  of  nitrogen,  phosphoric 
acid,  and  potash,  and  the  wheat  we  annually  exchange  for  $180,000,000 
worth  of  sugar  carries  with  it  fertilizer  to  the  value  of  $30,000,000. 
In  exporting  5,000,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  since  1867,  and  exchang- 
ing it  for  sugar,  we  have  robbed  our  soils  of  nearly  $1,000,000,000 
worth  of  fertilizing  elements. 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF   SUGAE-BEET  CULTURE.  11 

France  is  the  size  of  our  three  greatest  wheat-producing  States, 
Kansas,  Minnesota,  and  North  Dakota.  In  1907  France  sowed 
16,000,000  to  wheat,  as  did  these  three  States.  Since  the  introduction 
of  beet  culture,  French  soils  have  been  so  rejuvenated  that  from  her 
16,000,000  acres  of  wheat  French  farmers  harvested  325,000,000 
bushels,  while  from  our  16,000,000  acres  the  farmers  of  Kansas,  Min- 
nesota, and  North  Dakota  harvested  but  188,000,000  bushels,  or  11.7 
bushels  to  the  acre  to  the  Frenchman's  20.3  bushels. 

From  France  the  beet-sugar  industry  spread  to  every  country  of 
continental  Europe,  which  since  has  produced  150,000,000  metric 
tons  of  sugar,  worth,  at  4  cents  per  pound,  $13,000,000,000. 

Europe  produces  annually  8,000,000  tons  of  beet  sugar,  consumes 
5,500,000  tons,  and  exports  2,5007000  tons,  while  the  United  States 
produces  800J)00  tons  of  beet  and  cane  sugar,  consumes  3,300,000 
tons,  and  imports  2,500,000,  taking  a  portion  of  Europe's  exports. 

Not  only  does  Germany  produce  the  sugar  her  people  consume  and 
$50,000,000  worth  for  export,  but  by  reason  of  better  farming  meth- 
ods, brought  about  through  the  establishment  of  the  beet-sugar 
indusfry,  her  so-called  " worn-out  soils"  now  produce  30.5  bushels 
of  wheat  to  our  15.8;  59.1  bushels  of  oats  to  our  30.3;  39.4  bushels 
of  barley  to  our  24.3;  29.4  bushels  of  rye  to  our  16.1;  and  208.9 
bushels  of  potatoes  to  our  106.8. 

In  1907,  Germany  and  Kansas  each  sowed  5,200,000  acres  to 
wheat  and  from  their  5,200,000  acres  of  rejuvinated  soil,  German 
farmers  reaped  145,000,000  bushels,  while  from  our  5,200,000  acres 
of  virgin  soil,  Kansas  farmers  reaped  but  68,000,000  bushels. 

Germany  alone  absorbs  one-half  of  the  world's  production  of  potash 
and  the  European  imports  of  commercial  fertilizer  are  enormous^ 
As  commercial  fertilizers  aid  the  chemical  condition  of  the  soil,  so1 
sugar  beets  aid  its  physical  condition.  When  the  farmers  apply 
commercial  fertilizers,  they  have  to  pay  for  the  fertilizer,  but  when, 
by  growing  a  crop  of  beets  which  they  sell  for  enough  to  pay  for  the 
cost  of  production,  and  at  the  same  time  add  greatly  to  the  produc- 
tivity of  the  soil,  it  is  equivalent  to  securing  the  fertilizer  for  nothing. 

As  compared  to  the  total  United  States  production,  Germany, 
with  an  area  equal  only  to  that  of  Minnesota,  Iowa,  and  Missouri, 
produces  one- tenth  as  much  tobacco,  one-fifth  as  much  wheat,  three- 
fifths  as  much  oats,  four-fifths  as  much  hops,  four-fifths  as  much 
barley,  three  times  as  much  sugar,  six  times  as  many  potatoes,  and 
nine  times  as  much  Tye.  In  1907,  German  farmers,  from  43,000,000 
acres  sowed  to  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  and  potatoes,  harvested 
3,000,000,000  bushels,  while  from  the  88,500,000  acres  sowed  to  the 
same  crops  in  the  United  States,  American  farmers  harvested  but 
1,875,000,000  bushels.  In  other  words,  from  less  than  one-half  our 
area,  German  farmers  harvested  nearly  double  the  number  of  bushels. 

If  on  land  devoted  to  wheat,  oats,^  barley,  rye,  and  potatoes  in 
Germany  their  farmers  secured  only  our  average  acreage  yield  of 
those  crops,  German  farmers  would  be  poorer  by  $900,000,000  a  year. 

If  on  the  land  we  devote  to  wheat,  oats,  barley,  rye,  and  potatoes 
American  farmers  secured  the  same  yield  per  acre  as  is  secured  by 
German  farmers,  our  farmers  would  be  richer  by  $1,400,000,000  a 
year. 

By  the  expenditure  of  far  more  labor  the  German  farmer  secures  a 
yield  of  beets  2  to  3  tons  per  acre  in  excess  of  our  average  yield,  but 


12  INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

the  money  value  of  the  German's  larger  crop  is  less  per  acre  than  is 
the  smaller  yield  of  the  American  farmer,  yet  German  farmers  pro- 
duce 15,000,000  tons  of  beets  annually,  while  American  farmers  pro- 
duce but  3,500,000  tons.  On  the  other  hand,  German  farmers  produce 
30.5  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  to  our  15.8  bushels  and  the  price  per 
bushel  is  higher  in  Germany  than  it  is  in  the  United  States.  Not- 
withstanding these  facts  we  export  $119,000,000  worth  of  wheat  and 
wheat  flour  and  import  $180,000.000  worth  of  sugar,  while  Germany 
exports  $50,000,000  worth  of  sugar  and  imports  $65,000,000  worth  of 
wheat.  Considering  the  fact  that  there  is  no  crop  grown  the  yield  of 
which  is  increased  by  preceding  it  with  a  wheat  crop  and  that  there 
is  no  crop  grown  the  yield  of  which  is  not  increased  by  preceding  it 
with  a  beet  crop,  are  the  Germans  wise  in  importing  wheat  and 
exporting  sugar,  or  are  we  wise  in  importing  sugar  and  exporting 
wheat  ? 

When  we  import  95°  or  96°  sugar,  we  are  importing  a  product  on 
which  practically  all  of  the  labor  has  been  performed  in  a  foreign 
country.  To  melt  and  recrystallize  this  sugar  and  prepare  if  for 
the  table  contributes  but  little  to  American  industry.  In  refining  the 
3,148,818  short  tons  of  raw  sugar  we  imported  and  consumed  last 
year  there  accrued  to  American  industry  in  office  expenses,  brokerage, 
labor,  fuel,  bone  black,  bags,  barrels,  and  all  other  supplies  $6.48  per 
ton,  or  $20,404,340,  while  in  producing  but  511,840  tons  of  refined 
sugar  from  Am  eric  an -grown  beets  there  accrued  to  American  industry 
$38,388,000,  on  the  basis  of  3.75  cents  per  pound  average  cost.  To 
import  all  our  sugar  and  merely  refine  it  in  this  country  would  con- 
tritute  but  $22,842,000  to  American  industry,  while  to  produce  the 
same  amount  of  sugar  from  American-grown  beets  would  contribute 
$274,547,000  to  American  industry. 

That  we  have  an  abundance  of  sugar-beet  land  on  which  to  produce 
our  sugar  is  shown  by  a  report  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  in 
which  he  states  that  if  but  1  acre  in  50  of  our  well-defined  sugar- 
beet  area  were  planted  to  sugar  beets  once  every  four  years  it  would 
produce  all  the  sugar  we  now  purchase  from  foreign  countries,  and 
thus  would  return  our  farmers  $125,000,000  a  year  instead  of 
$21,000,000,  as  at  present. 

We  are  said  to  "feed  the  world,"  but  with  only  45  per  cent  of  the 
surface  area  of  the  United  States,  Europe,  without  Russia,  produces 
twice  as  much  wheat  and  oats,  three  and  one-half  times  as  much 
barley,  seven  times  as  much  sugar,  twelve  times  as  many  potatoes, 
and  twenty-five  times  as  much  rye  as  is  produced  in  the  United  States, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  we  lie  in  the  same  latitude,  have  a 
superior  agricultural  climate,  virgin  soils  of  greater  natural  richness, 
and  that  her  soils  have  been  cropped  for  centuries. 

While  the  United  States  often  is  represented  as  "  feeding  the 
starving  hordes  of  Europe,"  the  truth  is  that  their  rehabilitated 
soils,  even  excluding  Russia,  the  "  granary  of  Europe,"  produce 
more  bushels  of  the  five  crops  of  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  and  pota- 
toes per  capita  of  their  population  than  we  produce  in  the  United 
States  per  capita  of  our  population. 

As  compared  to  Europe,  we  have  richer  soils,  a  better  agricultural 
climate,  more  live  stock  to  produce  the  fertilizer,  more  and  better 
farm  implements  and  machinery,  a  more  extensive,  scientific,  and 
expejasive  Department  of  Agriculture,  presided  over  for  the  last  14 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAE-BEET  CULTURE. 


13 


years  by  the  greatest  executive  agriculturist  we  have  produced,  a 
more  intelligent  and  well-to-do  class  of  farmers,  and  yet,  with  all 
these  superior  conditions,  our  combined  average  acreage  yields  of 
wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  and  potatoes  in  1907  were  but  21.2  bushels 
per  acre,  as  compared  to  an  average  yield  of  43  bushels  for  the  same 
crops  throughout  the  Continent  of  Europe,  exclusive  of  Russia. 

Our  increased  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  from  $45,000,000  valu- 
ation in  1890  to  $110,000,000  in  1910  would  seem  to  be  inadequately 
reflected  in  our  8  per  cent  increase  in  combined  average  acreage 
yield  of  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  and  potatoes  during  the  past  30 
years,  especially  when  compared  to  the  75  per  cent  increase  in  acre- 
age yield  of  the  same  crops  in  Germany  during  the  same  period,  as 
shown  by  the  following  official  figures  of  the  two  countries: 

Increase  in  yield  of  five  staple  crops  in  Germany  and  the  United  States. 


Germany. 

United  States. 

Increase. 

1878-1883 

1909 

1879 

1909 

Germany. 

United 
States. 

Germany. 

United 
States. 

Rye 

Bushels 
per  acre. 
15.7 
19.2 
24.5 
31.8 
115.5 

Bushels 
per  acre. 
29.4 
30.5 
39.4 
59.1 
208.9 

Bushels 
per  acre. 
14.5 
13.8 
24.0 
28.7 
98.9 

Bushels 
per  acre. 
16.1 
15.8 
24.3 
30.3 
106.8 

Bushels. 
13.7 
11.3 
14.9 
27.7 
93.4 

Bushels. 
1.6 
2.0 
.3 
1.6 
7.6 

Per  cent. 
87.2 
58.8 
60.8 
85.8 
80.8 

Per  cent. 
10.9 
14.2 
1:2 
6.7 
7.6 

Wheat  

Barley 

Oats  

Potatoes 

As  all  the  preceding  statements  concerning  the  acreage  yields  and 
production  in  Europe  and  the  United  States  are  based  on  official 
figures  which  readily  can  be  verified,  they  should  correct  the  all  but 
universal  misconception  concerning  this  important  subject,  humiliat- 
ing though  the  truth  may  be. 

Conceding  the  fact,  which  can  be  substantiated  by  the  written 
words  of  Europe's  foremost  thinkers  of  the  past  century,  that  the 
l^eet^ugaiL  industry  more  than  any  one  or  all  other  causes  combined 
has  furnished  the  inspiration  which  has  resulted  in  placing  Europe  so 
far  in  advance  of  the  United  States  in  concrete  agricultural  results, 
the  question  naturally  arises  as  to  why  \ye  Jiave  not  fonpwed_more 
closely  in  Europe's  footsteps,  doubled  the  acreage~yieIcToT  our"  staple 
crops,  and  produced  all  of  our  sugarjit  home,  instead  of  producing  but 
500,000  tons  of  beet  sugar  at  home  and  importing  2,500,000  tons, 
the  equivalent  of  what  Europe  exports  after  supplying  her  400,000,000 
inhabitants. 

Of  minor  causes,  there  are  several,  including  the 'low  wage  rate  of 
Europe,Hhe  lower  price  for  beets;* the  fostering  care  of  their  govern- 
ments, extending  even  to  the  placing  of  large  bounties  on  sugar 
exports  in  order  that  they  might  compete  successfully  with  tropical 
sugars,  while  our  fiscal  system  has  been  unstable  and  vacillating, 
sometimes  affording  protection  to  home  producers  and  sometimes 
not.  Since  the  time  France  prohibited  the  importation  of  sugar  and 
established  the  beet-sugar  industry  in  that  nation,  the  United  States 
customs  duty  on  imported  sugar  has  undergone  thirteen  revisions, 
being  reduced  from  time  to  time  by  various  Congresses  from  10 
cents  per  pound  to  absolute  free  trade,  and  now  is  fixed  at  1.65  cents 
>°  and  1.9  cem 


for  95 ' 


cents  for  refined  sugar. 


14  INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

The  main  reason  why  we  produce  but  one-half  to  two-thirds  a8 
many  bushels  of  grain  per  acre  as  does  Europe  is  because,  with  rare 
exceptions,  our  American  economists  have  failed  utterly  to  recognize 
the  beet-sugar  industry  as  the  father  of  modern  scientific  agriculture, 
the  very  fountain  head  of  inspiration  from  which  the  science  sprang, 
the  great  "normal  school"  of  agriculture  which  trains  the  indifferent 
farmer  to  be  an  expert  farmer,  because  of  the  fact  that  sugar  beets 
form  the  only  important  agricultural  crop  which,  unless  the  price 
per  ton  be  exceedingly  high,  refuses  to  return  a  profit  or  even  expenses 
when  farmed  in  a  slip-shod  manner,  and  the  superior  methods  which 
the  farmer  is  forced  to  apply  to  beet  culture  gradually  are  applied 
to  the  production  of  other  crops  and  finally  are  adopted  by  neighbor- 
ing farmers,  even  though  they  raise  no  beets. 

It  was  beet  culture  that  forced  European  farmers  back  to  deep 
plowing,  compelled  them  to  clear  their  fields  of  weeds,  caused  them 
to  adopt  a  scientific  system  of  crop  rotation,  led  them  to  devise  new 
and  better  implements,  doubled  their  stock-carrying  capacity  as  well 
as  their  manure,  and  brought  them  to  a  better  realization  of  the  value 
of  barnyard  manure,  as  well  as  of  commercial  fertilizers,  and  as  a 
result  what  were  formerly  the  "worn-out  soils  of  Europe"  now  are  so 
productive  as  to  make  our  "virgin  soils"  seem  barren  in  comparison. 

While  American  economists  have  failed  to  recognize  the  sugar  beet 
as  the  father  of  modern  scientific  agriculture,  there  are  some  few  who 
realize  the  great  indirect  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  culture 
of  beets,  but  even  they  have  failed  to  capitalize  and  put  in  concrete 
form  these  indirect  benefits  in  order  that  our  people  might  realize 
the  enormous  wealth  which  would  accrue  to  the  Nation  by  deriving 
our  sugar  supply  from  horne-grown  beets.  As  In  teaching  the  farmers 
the  stress  has  been  laid  upon  "so  many  tons  of  beets  per  acre  at  so 
much  per  ton,"  so  in  teaching  the  people  the  main  stress  has  been 
laid  upon  keeping  a  hundred  or  two  millions  at  home  each  year  by 
producing  our  sugar  at  home  instead  of  importing  it,  almost  uni- 
versally overlooking  the  far  more  important  and  valuable  indirect 
benefits. 

Having  failed  to  impress  the  farmers  with  the  rotation  value  of 
sugar  beets  and  the  enemies  of  the  industry  having  spread  broadcast 
the  erroneous  statement  that  sugar-beet  culture  injures  the  soil — • 
just  as  in  the  inception  of  the  industry  an  English  society  offered 
Achard  first  $30,000  and  then  $120,000  if  he  would  declare  his  process 
a  failure,  and  finally  induced  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  to  publish  a  work 
on  beet  sugar  in  which  he  declared  it  was  far  too  sour  for  consumption — 
the  average  American  farmer  has  been  slow  to  engage  in  beet  culture, 
even  at  prices  for  his  product  ranging  from  25  to  80  per  cent  in  excess 
of  the  prices  paid  for  richer  beets  in  Europe.  In  establishing  334 
beet-sugar  factories  in  as  many  localities  in  France  in  2  years, 
Napoleon  opened  334  schools  of  scientific  agriculture,  while  in  the 
33  years  since  the  establishment  of  our  first  successful  beet-sugar 
factory  we  have  created  but  66  such  schools,  concerning  which  the 
present  Secretary  of  Agriculture  says: 

Every  sugar-factory  management  in  this  country  must  necessarily  call  to  its  aid  a 
thoroughly  scientific  and  practical  agriculturist,  and  under  him  a  corps  of  assistants, 
equipped  and  conversant,  not  only  with  cultivating  sugar  beets,  but  familiar  with 
methods  of  culture,  fertilization,  drainage,  rotation,  and  all  the  necessary  scientific 
knowledge  to  produce  successfully  all  kinds  of  crops  indigenous  to  the  particular 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAE-BEET  CULTURE.  15 

locality.  This  agriculturist  and  his  assistants  are  constantly  traveling  over  the  sugar- 
beet  producing  district  of  this  particular  factory,  advising  farmers  particularly  in  the 
growth  of  beets,  and  generally  in  the  production  of  all  other  crops.  They  are  as 
much  interested  incidentally  in  the  handling  of  the  lands  producing  other  crops  as 
they  are  particularly  the  one  in  charge.  It  is  these  other  lands  that  will  produce 
sugar  beets  next  year. 

A  sugar-factory  district  is  an  " extension  course"  in  agriculture  to  every  farmer  in 
the  district,  whether  he  be  growing  beets  or  not.  It  could  not  be  conceived,  with 
Buch  influences  constantly  in  operation,  that  the  sugar  industry  is  not  exerting  a 
potent  influence  most  favorable  in  production  of  all  crops. 

If  the  above-mentioned  truths,  no  truer  to-day  than  they  have  been 
at  any  time  during  the  past  century,  had  been  drilled  into  the  head 
of  every  farmer  boy  at  the  little  red  schoolhouse,  as  they  are  and 
have  been  in  Europe  since  the  time  of  Napoleon,  we  long  since  would 
have  been  producing  our  own  sugar  at  home  and,  because  of  our 
superior  soil,  climate,  and  numerous  other  advantages,  our  acreage 
yields  of  all  other  crops  to-day  would  be  the  envy  instead  of  the  ridicule 
of  European  thinkers.  As  it  is,  we  have  missed  the  mark  completely. 
As  a  rule,  our  farmers  have  taken  the  shadow  for  the  substance. 
"So  many  tons  of  beets  per  acre  at  so  much  per  ton"  is  the  first  thing 
considered  in  America  and  the  last  thing  in  Europe,  and  if  sugar 
beets  failed  to  yield  a  greater  direct  profit  than  do  other  crops,  the 
average  American  farmer  abandons  the  culture  and  applies  himself 
to  growing  the  more  easily  produced  cereals,  while  the  European 
farmer  will  grow  beets  at  a  considerable  direct  loss  lather  than  to 
abandon  the  culture,  well  knowing  that  he  will  far  more  than  make 
up  any  losses  on  the  beet  crop  by  the  increased  yields  of  other  crops 
with  which,  for  three  years,  he  follows  beets.  It  unquestionably 
is  true  that,  because  of  the  exceedingly  low  world  price  of  sugar, 
Europe  long  ago  would  have  ceased  to  produce  sugar  for  export,  if 
not  f or  t  home  consumption,  had  it  not  been  that  beet  culture  so 
greatly  increases  the  yield  of  all  other  crops. 

Instead  of  growing  beets  on  the  same  soil  year  after  year,  the 
European  farmer  rotates  them  with  other  crops,  sowing  them  on  the 
same  soil  as  infrequently  as  possible,  in  order  to  benefit  the  maximum 
area,  never  losing  sight  of  or  sacrificing  the  advantages  to  accrue 
for  the  following  three  years,  while  tens  of  thousands  of  American 
farmers,  sowing  beets  only  for  the  direct  returns,  sow  them  on  the 
same  soil  year  after  year,  thereby  not  only  losing  the  greatest  profit 
beet  culture  affords,  but  gradually  wearing  out  their  soils  as  they 
surely  will  be  worn  out  by  cropping  them  constantly  to  any  one  thing 
year  after  year  without  rotation. 

In  every  community  where  sugar  beets  are  produced,  there  are 
farmers  who,  by  personal  experience,  have  learned  the  truths  which 
Napoleon  proclaimed  a  century  ago,  and  their  number  is  increasing 
yearly,  but  there  are  thousands  who  still  miss  the  main  feature  in  the 
culture  of  sugar  beets  as  thoroughly  as  one  would  miss  it  who  said  that 
a  farmer  painted  Ms  barn  red  in  order  to  pro  vide  a  red  building  to  gaze  at. 
With  the  European  farmer  the  main  purpose  in  planting  sugar  beets  is 
to  increase  the  yield  of  his  other  crops  by  rotation  with  the"  beets,  just 
as  the  piimary  purpose  of  painting  a  barn  reel  or  yellow  is  to  preserve 
the  wood.  With  the  European  farmer,  the  direct  returns  from  a  crop 
of  beets  are  as  truly  an  incident  as  is  the  color  of  the  barn. 

The  following  limited  selection  of  letters  and  reports  received  from 
farmers  located  in  beet  districts  from  Ohio  on  the  east  to  Washington 


16 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 


on  the  west  is  sufficient  to  show  that  with  the  spread  of  the  beet-sugar 
industry  and  the  consequent  adoption  of  proper  cultural  methods,  the 
farmers  of  the  United  States  can  render  their  soils  even  more  pro- 
ductive than  are  the  rejuvenated  soils  of  Europe,  and  that  the  beneficial 
results  to  be  secured  from  the  introduction  of  this  crop  are  not  confined 
to  restricted  localities. 

While  corresponding  closely  with  other  reports  on  file,  the  number 
of  reports  herewith  produced  is  too  small  to  be  used  as  a  basis  for  an 
accurate  calculation,  but  that  the  results  obtained  by  these  farmers 
approximate  the  results  that  are  obtained  by  other  equally  intelligent 
farmers  and  which  would  be  obtained  by  them  generally  with  the 
further  expansion  of  the  beet-sugar  industry,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt. 

The  average  of  these  30  reports  shows  that  at  the  time  these  farmers 
introduced  beet  culture,  their  yield  of  wheat  was  92  per  cent  above 
the  United  States  average  yield  for  1907,  their  yield  of  barley  was  37 
per  cent  higher,  and  their  yield  of  oats  was  70  per  cent  higher  than 
the  United  States  average.  Notwithstanding  this  fact,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  beet  culture  as  a  rotating  crop,  they  increased  their  acre- 
age yield  of  wheat  42.5  per  cent,  their  barley  78.6  per  cent,  and  their 
oats  71.8  per  cent.  If,  through  the  general  introduction  of  beet  cul- 
ture, all  of  our  farmers  should  increase  their  yields  of  wheat,  barley, 
and  oats  a  like  number  of  bushels  per  acre,  based  on  1909  farm  prices, 
they  would  be  richer  by  a  billion  and  a  quarter  dollars  a  year,  and 
if  they  brought  their  yields  up  to  those  now  secured  by  these  farmers, 
their  extra  yield  of  these  three  crops,  on  the  same  acreage,  would  be 
worth  $2,000,000,000  a  year. 

The  average  acreage  yield  of  sugar  beets  secured  by  these  farmers 
was  14J  tons  per  acre.  One  report  on  alfalfa  shows  an  increase  of 
1  ton  and  another  of  2  tons  per  acre,  while  one  report  on  beans  shows 
an  increase  of  5  bushels  per  acre  and  another  6  bushels.  One 
report  on  potatoes  shows  an  increase  from  a  merely  nominal  }Tield,  to 
200  sacks,  or  nearly  three  times  the  average  United  States  yield. 
Whether  with  the  general  introduction  of  sugar-beet  culture,  the 
acreage  yields  of  all  our  farmers  would  be  increased  as  much,  or 
more  or  less,  can  not  be  determined.  That  they  could  do  it,  there 
is  no  question, -but  that  some  still  would  farm  in  a  shiftless  manner, 
is  altogether  probable. 

Averages  of  the  following  reports: 

Average  acreage  yield  of  wheat,  barley,  and  oats, -prior  and  subsequent  to  the  introduction 
of  sugar  beets  as  a  rotating  crop. 


Wheat. 

Barley. 

Oats. 

Average  United  States  yield  "per  acre  1907                                      bushels 

15.8 
30.5 
14.7 
93.0 

26.9 

43.6 
16.7 
42.5 
27.8 
17G.O 
13.1 
43.0 

24.3 
39.4 
15.1 
62.0 

32.7 

58.4 
25.7 
78.6 
34.1 
140.0 
19.0 
48.0 

30.3 

59.1 
28.8 
95.0 

40.2 

69.1 
28.9 
71.8 
38.8 
127.0 
10.0 
16.0 

Average  German  vield  per  acre,  1907  do  

Excess  German  yie^d  peracre  1907                                                       do 

Excess  German  vield  per  acre,  1907  per  cent.. 

Average  yield  per  acre  prior  to  sugar-beet  culture,  as  shown  by  following 
reports  of  American  farmers                                                           bushels 

Average  yield  per  acre  by  same  after  introducing  sugar  beets  as  a  rotating 
crop                                                                                     bushels.. 

Excess  yield  per  acre  caused  by  rotatir^  with  sugar  beets                  do 

Increase  in  yield  per  acre  per  cent  .  . 

Yield  per  acre  in  excess  of  United  States  1907  average  yield  bushels.  . 
Excess  of  United  States  1907  average  viold                                     per  cent 

Yield  per  acre  in  excess  of  German  1907  average  yield  bushels.  . 

Excess  of  German  1907  average  yield                                               per  cent 

INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE.  17 

KEPORTS  FROM  AMERICAN  SUGAR-BEET  GROWERS,  SHOWING  INCREASED  YIELD  OP 
OTHER  CROPS  BY  REASON  OP  BEING  ROTATED  WITH  SUGAR  BEETS. 

OHIO. 

We  are  well  satisfied  in  raising  other  crops  where  we  had  beets  before.  We  always 
raise  better  crops  on  our  beet  ground  than  on  our  other  ground.  We  have  had  sugar 
beets  four  years  and  always  find  satisfaction.  We  started  with  3  acres  and  this  year 
12  acres.  We  raised  wheat,  oats,  barley,  and  corn.  (Tony  Bast,  Graytown,  R.  F. 
D.,  17.) 

We  are  now  raising  our  sixth  consecutive  crop  of  sugar  beets.  When  we  planted 
the  first  seed  we  were  told  that  the  beets  would  wear  out  the  soil;  that  the  sugar  com- 
pany were  swindlers  and  would  compel  the  farmers  to  pit  the  beets  till  winter;  that  jf 
the  beets  were  frostbitten  they  would  be  worthless.  We  have  yearly  realized  from 
$50  to  $75  per  acre  for  the  beets  and,  moreover,  with  experience  we  are  ready  to  state 
that  we  always  grow  one-third  more  oats  or  barley  on  ground  where  beets  were  raised 
the  previous  year  than  on  ground  that  has  raised  no  beets.  (Jos.  Shiple  &  Sons, 
Perrysburg.) 

'V;-  MICHIGAN. 

I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  grown  sugar  beets  for  the  last  three  years  and  I  can  truth- 
fully say  that  the  growing  of  sugar  beets  is  a  benefit  to  the  soil  if  the  crop  is  given 
proper  rotation.  I  have  received  the  best  results  by  following  the  crop  with  a  crop  of 
oats.  This  season  (1909)  I  thrashed  from  5  acres  of  measured  ground,  which  was  in 
sugar  beets  last  season,  270  bushels  of  oats,  or  an  average  of  54  bushels  per  acre.  The 
balance  of  my  oat  crop  which  was  on  ground  following  a  corn  crop  (equally  as  good  soil) 
is  yielding  about  40  bushels  per  acre.  Therefore  I  feel  that  I  am  justified  in  making 
this  statement.  (Alex.  Larkms,  Carleton.) 

I  have  raised  beets  for  the  last  seven  years  and  have  averaged  about  16  tons  per 
acre.  I  also  find  that  oats  will  do  better  on  the  ground  where  I  raise  beets  than  they 
will  on  other  ground.  This  year  the  oats  on  my  beet  ground  produced  75  bushels  per 
acre,  while  the  others  only  produced  about  60  bushels  per  acre.  (Sam  Seizert, 
Blissfield.) 

In  regard  to  beet  culture,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  raised  sugar  beets  for  six  years 
and  consider  it  one  of  the  most  profitable  crops  that  a  farmer  can  raise.  Not  only 
because  he  gets  the  greater  return  for  his  labor,  when  they  are  properly  cared  for,  but 
because  the  ground  is  left  in  the  best  possible  condition  for  the  next  crop,  for  since 
raising  sugar  beets  my  land  has  been  gradually  increasing  her  yield  per  acre.  The 
increase  in  yield  of  oats  has  been  from  15  to  25  per  cent,  or  from  40.  or  45  to  55  bushels 
per  acre,  and  on  wheat  the  increase  has  been  about  the  same.  When  I  have  raised 
beets  two  consecutive  years  on  the  same  piece  of  ground  and  then  sowed  oats  they 
were  extra.  We  as  farmers  are  satisfied  that  we  get  better  crops  since  raising  beets. 
(S.  S.  Teed,  Middleton.)  > 

In  regard  to  the  condition  of  ground  that  beets  have  been  grown  on,  will  say  that 
I  have  grown  beets  quite  extensively  and  find  that  it  is  an  improvement  rather  than 
a  detriment  to  the  soil.  In  19.01 1  grew  2  acres  of  beets;  went  about  18  tons  per  acre; 
followed  with  beets,  besides  adding  29  acres,  making  31  acres  for  1902,  average 
yield,  about  11 J  tons.  Out  of  31  acres,  17  acres  to  beans  following,  yielding  14  bushels- 
per  acre.  Same  12  acres  to  wheat  yielding  37  bushels  per  acre,  following  with  the 
biggest  crop  of  hay  ever  cut  in  the  neighborhood,  and  5  acres  of  17-acre  bean  ground 
went  to  oats  the  following  spring,  yielding  53  bushels  besides  one-third  loss  on  account 
of  being  lodged,  average  for  year  in  neighborhood  being  about  27  bushels.  In  1904 
had  2£  acres  of  beets,  yielding  about  9  tons,  following  with  oats  yielding  45  bushels 
per  acre;  average  in  neighborhood,  about  30  bushels  per  acre.  In  1905  had  40  acres 
of  beets,  8  tons;  following  8  acres  to  beets  again,  yielding  about  10  tons  second  year; 
following  next  with  oats  yielding  51  bushels  per  acre.  Balance  of  40  acres,  12  acres 
went  to  beans;  balance  of  20  acres  were  sown  to  oats,  yielding  about  47  bushels  per 
acre;  following  same  with  wheat,  yielding  about  28  bushels,  when  average  in  neigh- 
borhood was  about  13  bushels.  In  1906,  had  14  acres  to  beets,  about  10  tons  yield, 
following  same  with  14  acres  to  oats,  yielding  about  47  bushels  per  acre;  then  to 
wheat,  yielding  28  bushels  per  acre;  average  for  wheat  that  year  in  neighborhood 
about  13  bushels  per  acre.  In  1907  had  17  acres  in  beets,  average  about  11  tons.  Of 
17  acres  3  acres  went  to  oats,  and  seeded  6  acres  to  beets  again,  yielding  about  the  same, 
and  balance  of  17  acres,  or  8  acres,  went  to  oats,  yielding  68  bushels  per  acre;  then  to 
wheat,  yielding  this  year  38  bushels  per  acre,  and  good  seeding  in  sight.  In  1908  had 
15  acres  of  beets,  about  10  tons  average  yield;  12  acres  now  to  oats  with  a  prospect  for 

S.  Doc.  76,  62-1 2 


18  INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF   SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

a  bumper  crop,  and  balance  of  15  acres,  or  3  acres,  are  to  beets  again  this  year.  This 
year  have  26  acres  to  beets  with  good  prospect  for  11  or  12  tons.  This  report  was  made 
and  kept  on  one  of  my  "eighties."  On  the  other  have  grown  in  the  last  four  seasons,- 
including  13  acres  this  year,  71  acres,  with  about  the  same  results  in  regard  to  follow- 
ing crops,  although  have  no  record  of  different  fields  and  yield.  (W.  J.  Davis,- 
Sunfield.) 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  in  having  a  chance  to  show  to  my  brother  farmers  the  lit- 
tle I  know  about  sugar  beets  placing  the  soil  in  a  better  mechanical  condition  for  other 
grain  crops  than  any  other  crop  in  the  rotation.  On  a  6-acre  lot  of  beets  I  harvested 
11  tons  per  acre  of  beets.  I  followed  the  beets  with  barley  and  got  50  bushels  per  acre, 
an  increase  of  50  per  cent  as  compared  with  crops  raised  by  my  neighbors  and  myself 
formerly.  The  above  6  acres  was  put  to  wheat  after  the  barley  and  made  35  bushels 
per  acre,  and  the  stand  of  clover  is  good  for  sore  eyes.  I  am  more  than  satisfied  with 
the  beets,  not  alone  for  the  money  crop,  but  also  the  permanent  good  to  the  land. 
(W.  L.  Huber,  Charlotte.) 

WISCONSIN. 

J.  L.  Walsh,  of  Beloit,  reports  that  with  a  farm  of  which  400  acres  are  under  cultiva- 
tion, the  principal  crops  being  cabbage,  sugar  beets,  oats,  onions,  and  clover,  has 
grown  sugar  beets  for  five  years  and  has  75  acres  of  beets  which,  under  normal  condi- 
tions, yield  18  tons  per  acre.  Follows  a  four-year  rotation,  including  cabbages  two  years; 
beets  one  year,  oats  and  clover.  Follows  sugar  beets  with  grain  and  clover,  then 
cabbages.  Plows  7  inches  deep,  and  disks  and  harrows  until  seed  bed  is  perfect. 
Uses  barnyard  manure  and  commercial  fertilizer.  Hoes  his  beets  twice  and  culti- 
vates with  a  horse  seven  or  eight  times.  Raised  46  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre  on  a 
37-acre  field,  which  the  following  year  was  put  to  beets,  and  the  following  year  har- 
vested 107  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre,  while  his  yield  from  a  7-acre  field  of  potatoes 
which  before  produced  between  75  and  90  bushels,  after  beets  increased  to  225  bushels. 
He  says:  "I  grew  150  acres  of  beets  in  1907,  and  in  1908  the  same  land  and  100  addi- 
tional acres  to  beets  on  the  same  farm.  In  1909  the  whole  was  sown  to  oats  and  pro- 
duced 87  bushels  per  acre." 

In  reply  to  your  letter  concerning  the  number  of  bushels  of  grain  raised  on  sugar- 
beet  ground,  will  say  that  from  11  acres  of  sugar-beet  ground  I  raised  783  bushels  of 
oats  this  year  (71  bushels  per  acre),  and  that  was  all  the  oats  I  had  sowed  this  year. 
The  other  farms  joining  mine  only  had  a  yield  of  between  30  to  40  bushels.  Mr. 
Stieneke,  one  of  my  neighbors,  raised  over  75  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre  on  sugar-beet 
land.  (Dell  Tuttle,  Ripon.) 

For  the  past  seven  years  I  have  had  from  2  acres  to  30  acres  of  beets— sugar  beets — • 
on  this  farm.  I  always  have  found  sugar-beet  land  the  best  for  small  grain,  oats  and 
barley  and  clover  and  timothy,  of  any  land;  much  better  than  corn  land.  I  find  a 
crop  of  sugar  beets  well  cared  for,  pays  as  good  as  any  crop  at  high  prices,  and  the  best 
crop  to  clear  the  land  of  all  foul  weeds,  including  quack  and  Canada  thistle.  On  a 
15-acre  lot  where  sugar  beets  were  raised  last  year,  1908,  I  thrashed  and  sold  600 
bushels  of  barley  (40  bushels  per  acre)  which  graded  47  pounds  per  bushel.  Thirty 
bushels  barley  per  acre  is  a  good  crop  here.  On  an  18-acre  lot  where  11  acres  sugar 
beets  and  6  acres  cucumbers  and  1  acre  corn  were  raised  last  year,  1908,  I  thrashed 
1,000  bushels  oats.  On  the  cucumber  land  the  oats  were  weedy,  rusty,  and  lodged 
very  green,  which  made  a  good  60  bushels  of  oats  per  acre  on  the  sugar-beet  land. 
Forty  to  50  bushels  of  oats  per  acre  is  a  good  crop  here.  (R.  M.  Sherwood,  Ripon.) 

IOWA. 

In  1908  I  grew  3  acres  of  sugar  beets  for  the  Iowa  Sugar  Co.,  receiving  12  tons  per 
acre.  In  1909  I  planted  the  same  ground  to  corn.  Adjoining  the  3  acres  of  beets  I 
broke  up  some  new  land  and  planted  it  to  corn.  During  the  growing  season  the  corn 
on  the  new  land  stood  taller  than  the  corn  on  the  beet  ground.  When  I  husked  the 
corn  this  fall,  the  yield  from  the  beet  ground  was  70  bushels  per  acre,  and  the  yield 
from  the  new  ground  was  60  bushels  per  acre.  In  my  estimation,  beets  do  not  hurt 
the  ground,  but  improve  it  for  the  next  crop.  (C.  Grimm,  Cresco.) 

Followed  beets  with  oats,  1909,  20-acre  field.  Field  seeded  to  clover  and  hay  taken 
off  the  year  before  the  beets.  Beets  went  from  12  to  13  tons  per  acre.  Oats  thrashed 
out  65  bushels  per  acre  and  weighed  out  70  bushels  per  acre,  average  for  20  acres,' 
the  champion  yield  in  Iowa  for  1909.  (Leonard  Miller,  Waverly.) 

E.  H.  Mallory,  of  Hampton,  has  a  200-acre  farm  and  has  44  acres  in  beets,  which 
have  increased  his  yield  or  corn  from  50  bushels  to  60  bushels,  and  oats  averaging  from 
20  to  30  bushels  have  increased  to  50  bushels. 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS   OF   SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE.  19 

KANSAS. 

A.  R.  Downing,  of  Deerfield,  reports  a  field  of  alfalfa  plowed  up  several  years  ago 
and  put  to  wheat,  yielding  45  bushels  per  acre.  The  field  was  then  planted  to  beets 
three  years  in  succession  and  was  then  followed  by  oats,  yielding  73  bushels  per  acre. 
The  oats  were  followed  by  wheat,  which  gave  a  yield  of  53  bushels  per  acre. 

Mr.  CarlCoerber,  of  Deerfield,  plowed  up  a  field  of  alfalfa  and  put  it  in  wheat,  which 
gave  an  average  yield  of  35  bushels  per  acre.  This  was  followed  by  beets  for  two  years, 
then  oats  one  year,  and  wheat  following  the  oats  gave  a  yield  of  45  bushels  per  acre. 

NEBRASKA. 

James  R.  White,  of  Hershey,  route  1,  reports  that  he  farms  210  acres.  Principal 
crops  alfalfa,  beets,  corn,  and  oats.  Has  grown  sugar  beets  for  five  years.  Has  15 
acres  in  beets,  which  usually  yield  14  tons  to  the  acre.  Plows  9  to  10  inches  deep. 
Harrows  four  times.  Fertilizes  with  barnyard  manure.  Hoes  twice  and"  cultivates 
six  times.  A  15-acre  field  of  oats  prior  to  beet  culture  yielded  35  bushels  to  the  acre; 
after  being  in  beets  two  years,  yielded  50  bushels  to  the  acre.  A  30-acre  field  of 
alfalfa,  which  yielded  4  tons  to  the  acre  prior  to  beet  culture,  yielded  6  tons  to  the 
acre  after  having  been  planted  to  beets  three  years. 

S.  E.  Solomon,  of  Culbertson,  reports  that  he  has  a  1,000-acre  sandy-loam  farm; 
with  800  acres  under  cultivation  to  wheat,  corn,  potatoes,  sugar  beets,  and  alfalfa. 
Has  300  acres  in  sugar  beets;  has  grown  beets  for  eight  years,  and  averages  10  tons  per 
acre.  He  says:  "Never  practiced  system  of  rotation;  am  not  following  a  system,  but 
should  do  so.  Depth  of  plowing,  6  inches;  should  be  12;  use  no  fertilizer.  Am  not 
employing  any  system  of  fertilization  or  rotation.  Hand  hoe  beets  one  or  two  times; 
horse  cultivate  two  or  three  times.  Am  positive  that  rotation  and  fertilization  would 
double  average  yields.  The  most  slipshod  methods  are  employed  in  growing  beets 
in  this  section.  What  is  needed  is  deep  plowing,  careful  rotation,  and  use  of  barnyard 
manures.  Have  had  enough  experience  to  fully  demonstrate  this."  [Frank,  but 
foolish.] 

COLORADO. 

Lee  Kelim,  of  Loveland,  a  large  landowner,  formerly  the  owner  of  the  Loveland  mill, 
and  who  has  operated  thrashing  machines  in  that  vicinity  for  25  years,  says  that  previ- 
ous to  the  starting  of  beet  growing,  20  to  25  bushels  of  wheat  was  considered  a  large 
crop,  and  that  out  of  this  they  would  screen  15  to  20  pounds  of  wild  oats.  Now  40  to  50 
bushels  is  considered  an  average  crop,  and  he  feels  safe  in  saying  that  in  the  Loveland 
district  the  introduction  of  beets  into  the  crop  rotation  has  increased  the  yield  of  grain 
100  per  cent,  and  has  cleaned  the  country  of  the  wild  oats  pest. 

J.  L.  Sybrandt,  of  Berthoud,  reports  that  he  has  a  360-acre  farm,  of  which  290  acres 
are  under  cultivation  to  wheat,  oats,  alfalfa,  barley,  potatoes,  and  68  acres  to  sugar 
beets,  which  average  12  tons  per  acre  and  which  he  rotates  with  other  crops  every  three 
to  five  years,  and  fertilizes  his  ground  with  sheep  manure.  He  has  grown  beets  for 
four  years  and  has  increased  his  wheat  yield  of  20  to  30  bushels  to  56  bushels  per  acre, 
and  his  barley  yield  from  30  to  40  bushels  to  65  bushels  per  acre. 

David  Snider,  of  Platteville,  reports  that  he  has  a  2,000-acre  farm,  of  which  he  culti- 
vates 1,200  acres  to  alfalfa,  wheat;  oats,  barley,  potatoes,  and  sugar  beets,  of  which  he 
had  in  400  acres.  Has  grown  sugar  beets  for  six  years,  secured  a  yield  of  13£  to  18  tons 
per  acre  and  rotates  them  with  other  crops,  following  them  with  wheat  or  barley. 
Plows  his  land  10  inches  deep.  Has  increased  his  wheat  yield  from  30  to  35  bushels 
to  35  to  50  bushels  per  acre;  his  oats  from  20  to  25  bushels  to  60  to  75  bushels;  his  bar- 
ley from  25  to  30  bushels  to  70  to  85  bushels;  and  his  potatoes  from  a  nominal  yield  to 
200  sacks  per  acre. 

The  Taylor-Fuller  Mercantile  Co.,  of  Avondale,  report  that  they  have  been  farming 
for  14  years,  operating  a  120-acre  farm,  of  which  100  acres  are  in  cultivation.  They 
have  grown  sugar  beets  for  eight  years  and  average  14  tons  to  the  acre,  rotating  beets 
with  other  crops.  By  rotating  with  beets  they  have  increased  their  wheat  yield  from 
25  to  40  bushels  per  acre;  oats  from  30  to  50  bushels;  beans  from  12  to  18  bushels;  and 
hay  from  3  to  4  tons  per  acre.  They  say :  ' ' Before  the  introduction  of  sugar-beet  raising 
farming  was  conducted  in  a  very  loose  way,  and  as  it  is  impossible  to  raise  sugar  beets 
at  a  profit  without  employing  the  best  farming  methods,  it  has  made  better  farmers, 
and  they  have  found  the  same  pay  with  any  crop.  For  some  reason  grain  and  in  fact 
all  other  crops  do  well  following  beets,  although  the  land  may  be  worn  out  for  sugar 
beets."  [NOTE. — In  this  section  it  has  been  customary  to  follow  the  "gravel-pit", 
method  of  farming,  and  grow  beets  on  the  same  soil  year  after  year  without  rotation; 
with  the  inevitable  result  that  the  land  finally  refuses  to  produce  a  paying  crop  of 


20  INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE* 

beets  until  it  has  been  rested  from  this  crop.    As  well  try  to  eat  a  quail  every  day  for 
a  month  as  to  try  to  farm  in  this  manner.    In  both  cases,  nature  rebels.] 

J.  Reimer,  of  Pueblo,  reports  that  he  has  been  farming  in  that  section  14  years  and 
has  50  acres  in  cultivation,  of  which  13  acres  are  in  beets.  Has  grown  beets  5  yeara 
and  averages  14  tons  per  acre.  Plows  10  inches  deep,  harrows  four  times,  hand  hoes 
three  times,  horse  cultivates  four  times,  fertilizes  with  stable  manure.  Rotation  with 
sugar  beets  has  increased  his  corn  yield  from  20  to  30  bushels  per  acre;  oats  from  40 
to  65  bushels;  rye,  no  increase  from  40  bushels;  beans  from  15  to  20  bushels;  and  no 
increase  in  his  alfalfa  crop  of  5  tons  per  acre. 

MONTANA. 

John  B.  Clewett,  of  Fromberg,  reports  that  he  is  operating  a  425-acre  farm,  with  150 
acres  under  cultivation,  60  being  to  beets;  secured  yield  of  15  tons  of  beets  per  acre. 
A  tract  of  22  acres  which  yielded  27  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  prior  to  beet  culture 
was  put  into  beets  for  three  consecutive  years,  when  it  yielded  45  bushels  of  wheat 
per  acre.  His  oat  crop  increased  from  60  bushels  to  80  bushels  under  like  conditions. 
He  says:  "Beet  cultivation  is  a  good  thing  for  the  character  of  soil  in  this  district,  as 
it  seems  to  fertilize  and  increase  the  production  of  grain  two  or  three  seasons  after 
rotation.'! 

UTAH. 

W.  T.  Wyment,  Warren,  Weber  County,  reports  10  acres  to  beets.  Previous  to 
raising  beets  this  land  produced  25  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre.  Beets  were  grown 
on  the  land  for  three  years,  after  which  it  was  planted  in  wheat  again,  producing 
45  bushels  to  the  acre,  an  increase  of  20  bushels  to  the  acre. 

J.  F.  Stoddard,  Hooper,  Weber  County,  reports  5  acres  to  beets.  Previous  to  grow- 
ing beets  the  land  produced  35  bushels  of  barley  to  the  acre.  Beets  were  grown  on 
this  land  for  four  successive  years,  after  which  the  land  was  planted  to  barley  again 
and  produced  55  bushels  to  the  acre,  an  increase  of  20  bushels  to  the  acre. 

Thomas  Jones,  Hooper,  Weber  County,  reports  10  acres  to  beets.  Previous  to  plant- 
ing of  beets,  this  land  produced  20  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre.  After  growing  beeta 
for  three  successive  years  it  was  again  planted  in  wheat  and  produced  35  bushels  to 
the  acre,  an  increase  of  15  bushels  per  acre. 

IDAHO. 

George  A.  Pincock,  of  Sugar  City,  reports  that  he  has  grown  sugar  beets  for  five 
years  and  has  50  acres  in  beets,  averaging  15  tons  per  acre.  Prior  to  beet  culture,  hia 
wheat  yielded  25  to  30  bushels;  following  beets,  50  to  60  bushels.  Oats,  prior  to  beets, 
40  to  46  bushels;  following  beets,  75  to  100  bushels.  Barley,  prior  to  beets,  40  to  60 
bushels;  following  beets,  75  to  100  bushels.  He  says:  "I  see  these  yields  prevailing 
wherever  beets  have  been  raised." 

WASHINGTON. 

James  Hays,  of  Waverly,  reports  a  yield  of  80  bushels  of  oata  after  spring  plowing, 
and  100  bushels  following  beets;  of  wheat,  after  spring  plowing,  40  bushels,  and  50 
bushels  after  beets,  this  being  the  average  during  a  period  of  several  years. 

F.  Kienba^lm,  of  Waverly,  reports  his  oat  vield  at  60  bushels  after  spring  plowing, 
and  90  bushels  on  beet  land;  wheat,  30  bushels  after  spring  plowing,  and  50  bushels  on 
beet  land. 

A.  D.  Thayer,  of  Waverly,  reports  yield  of  45  bushels  of  oats  after  spring  plowing, 
and  100  bushels  on  his  beet  land;  wheat,  35  bushels  after  summer  fallow,  and  45 
bushels  after  beet?. 

William  Connolly,  of  Waverly,  reports  yield  of  75  bushels  of  oats  after  spring  plow- 
ing, and  85  to  95  bushels  after 'beets;  wheat,  40  bushels  after  summer  fallow,  and  50 
bushels  following  beets. 

CALIFORNIA. 

D.  J.  Murphy,  of  Chico,  superintendent  of  the  heirs  of  James  Phelan,  operating  an 
8,000-acre  farm  with  3,000  acres  under  cultivation,  has  grown  sugar  beets  for  five 
years  and  has  600  acres  to  beets.  Secures  yield  of  12  to  20  tons  and  practices  a  rota- 
tion sj^stem  consisting  of  wheat,  followed  by  barley,  then  pasture  of  voluntary  wheat 
or  barley,  followed  by  sugar  beets.  Plows  12  inches  deep.  Reports  an  increase  in 
yield  of  wheat,  due  to  sugar-beet  rotation,  from  10  to  12  bags  of  138  pounds  each  (23  to 
27£  bushels)  to  15  bags  of  140  pounds  each  (35  bushels);  of  barley,  from  16  bags  of 
108  pounds  each  (36  bushels)  to  24  bags  of  108  pounds  each  (54  bushels). 


INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OP  SUdAB-BBEl?  OUI.TTJBB. 


21 


FIRST  DECREE  OP  NAPOLEON  PROVIDING  FOR  THE  ENCOURAGEMENT  OP  THE  BEET- 
SUGAR  INDUSTRY. 

PALACE  OF  THE  TUILERIES,  March  23,  1811. 

Napoleon,  Emperor  of  the  French,  etc. 

Upon  a  report  of  a  commission  appointed  to  examine  the  means  proposed  to  natu- 
ralize, upon  the  continent  of  our  Empire,  sugar,  indigo,  cotton,  and  divers  other 
productions  of  the  two  Indies; 

Upon  presentation  made  to  us  of  a  considerable  quantity  of  beet-root  sugar  refined, 
crystallized,  and  possessing  all  the  properties  of  cane  sugar; 

Upon  presentation  made  to  us  at  the  council  of  commerce  of  a  great  quantity  of 
indigo  extracted  from  the  plant  woad,  which  our  Departments  of  the  south  produce 
in  abundance,  and  which  indigo  has  all  the  properties  of  the  indigo  of  the  two  Indies; 

Having  reason  to  expect  that  by  means  of  these  two  precious  discoveries  our  Empire 
will  shortly  be  relieved  from  an  exportation  of  100,000,000  francs  hitherto  necessary 
for  supplying  the  consumption  of  sugar  and  indigo; 

We  have  decreed  and  do  decree  as  follows: 

ARTICLE  1.  Plantations  of  beet  root  proper  for  the  manufacture  of  sugar  shall  be 
formed  in  our  Empire  to  the  extent  of  32,000  hectares  (79,040  acres). 

ART.  2.  Our  minister  of  the  interior  shall  distribute  32,000  hectares  among  the 
Departments  of  our  Empire,  taking  into  consideration  those  Departments  where  the 
culture  of  tobacco  may  be  established  and  those  which  from  the  nature  of  the  soil 
may  be  more  favorable  to  the  culture  of  the  beet  root. 

ART.  3.  Our  prefects  shall  take  measure  that  the  number  of  hectares  allotted  to 
their  respective  Departments  shall  be  in  full  cultivation  this  year,  or  next  year  at 
the  latest. 

ART.  4.  A  certain  number  of  hectares  shall  be  laid  out  in  our  Empire  in  plantations 
of  woad  proper  to  the  manufacture  of  indigo  in  the  proportion  necessary  for  our 
manufacture. 

ART.  5.  Our  minister  of  the  interior  shall  distribute  the  said  number  among  the 
Departments  beyond  the  Alps  and  those  of  the  south,  where  this  branch  of  industry 
formerly  made  great  progress. 

ART.  6.  Our  prefects  shall  take  measure  that  the  number  of  hectares  allotted  to 
their  Departments  shall  be  in  full  cultivation  next  year  at  the  latest. 

ART.  7.  The  commission  shall,  before  the  4th  of  May,  fix  upon  the  most  conven- 
ient places  for  the  establishment  of  six  experimental  schools  for  giving  instruction  in 
the  manufacture  of  beet-root  sugar  conformably  to  the  processes  of  chemists. 

ART.  8.  The  commission  shall  also,  before  the  same  date,  fix  upon  the  places  most 
convenient  for  the  establishment  of  four  experimental  schools  for  giving  instruction 
upon  the  extraction  of  indigo  from  the  leaves  of  woad  according  to  the  processes 
approved  by  the  commission. 

ART.  9.  Our  minister  of  the  interior  shall  make  known  to  the  prefects  in  what  places 
these  schools  shall  be  formed  and  to  which  pupils  destined  to  this  manufacture  should 
be  sent.  Proprietors  and  farmers  who  may  wish  to  attend  a  course  of  lectures  in  the 
said  experimental  schools'  shall  be  admitted  thereto. 

ART.  10.  Messrs.  Barruel  and  Isnard,  who  have  brought  to  perfection  the  processes 
for  extracting  sugar  from  the  beet  root,  shall  be  specially  charged  with  the  direction 
of  two  of  the  six  experimental  schools. 

ART.  11.  Our  minister  of  the  interior  shall,  in  consequence,  cause  to  be  paid  the 
sum  necessary  for  the  formation  of  the  said  establishments,  which  sum  shall  be  charged 
to  the  fund  of  1,000,000  francs  ($200,000)  in  the  budget  of  1811  at  the  disposal  of  the 
eaid  minister  for  the  encouragement  of  beet-root  sugar  and  woad  indigo. 

ART.  12.  From  the  1st  of  January,  1813,  and  upon  a  report  to  be  made  to  our  minister 
of  the  interior,  the  sugar  and  indigo  of  the  two  Indies  shall  be  prohibited  and  con- 
sidered as  merchandise  of  English  manufacture  or  proceeding  from  English  commerce. 

ART.  13.  Our  minister  of  the  interior  is  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  present 
decree. 

DECREE  OF  NAPOLEON,  JANUARY  15,  1812. 
SECTION  1. — School  for  manufacture  of  beet-root  sugar. 

ARTICLE  1.  The  factory  of  Messrs.  Barruel  &  Chappelet,  plain  of  Vertus,  and  those 
established  at  Wachenheim,  Department  of  Mont-Tonnere,  at  Douai,  Strasbourg,  and 
at  Castelnaudary  are  established  as  special  schools  for  the  manufacture  of  beet-root 
Bugar. 


22  INDIRECT  BENEFITS  OF  SUGAR-BEET  CULTURE. 

ART.  2.  One  hundred  students  shall  be  attached  to  these  schools,  viz,  40  at  that 
of  Messrs.  Barruel  &  Chappelet,  and  15  at  each  of  those  at  Wachenheim,  Douai,  Stras- 
bourg, and  Castelnaudary;  total,  100. 

ART.  3.  These  students  shall  be  selected  from  among  students  in  medicine,  phar- 
macy, and  chemistry. 

SECTION  II. — Culture  of  beets. 

ART.  4.  Our  minister  of  the  interior  shall  take  measure  to  cause  to  be  sown  through- 
out our  Empire  100,000  metrical  arpents  (150,000  acres)  of  beets.  The  conditions  of 
the  distribution  of  the  culture  shall  be  printed  and  sent  to  the  prefects  previous  to 
February  15. 

SECTION  III. — Manufacture. 

ART.  5.  There  shall  be  accorded  throughout  our  entire  Empire  500  licenses  for  the 
iij..»nufacture  of  beet-root  sugar. 

ART.  6.  These  licenses  shall  be  accorded  of  preference — 

To  all  proprietors  of  factories  or  refineries. 

To  all  who  have  manufactured  sugar  during  1811. 

To  all  who  have  made  preparations  and  expenditures  for  the  establishment  of 
factories  for  work  in  1812. 

ART.  7.  Of  these  licenses  shall  be  accorded  of  right,  one  to  each  Department. 

ART.  8.  Prefects  shall  write  to  all  proprietors  of  refineries,  in  order  that  they  may 
make  their  submissions  for  the  establishment  of  the  said  factories  at  the  close  of  1812. 
In  default  on  the  part  of  proprietors  of  refineries  to  have  made  their  submissions 
prior  to  March  15,  or  at  the  latest  April  15,  they  shall  be  considered  as  having  renounced 
the  preference  accorded  them. 

ART.  9.  Licenses  shall  include  an  obligation  on  the  part  of  those  who  shall  obtain 
them  to  establish  a  factory  capable  of  producing  at  least  10,000  kilograms  (22,000 
pounds)  of  raw  sugar  in  1812-13. 

ART.  10.  Each  individual  who,  having  secured  a  license,  shall  have  actually  man- 
ufactured nearly  10,000  kilograms  of  raw  sugar  resulting  from  the  crop  of  1812  to  1813,' 
shall  have  the  privilege  and  assurance,  by  way  of  encouragement,  of  being  subject 
to  no  tax,  or  octroi,  upon  the  product  of  his  manufacture  for  the  space  of  four  years. 

ART.  11.  Each  individual  who  shall  perfect  the  manufacture  of  sugar  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  obtain  a  larger  quantity  from  the  beet,  or  who  shall  invent  a  more  simple 
and  economical  method  of  manufacture,  shall  obtain  a  license  for  a  longer  time,  with 
the  assurance  that  no  duty  nor  octroi  shall  be  placed  upon  the  product  of  his  manu- 
facture during  the  continuance  of  his  license. 

SECTION  IV. — Creation  of  four  imperial  factories. 

ART.  12.  Four  imperial  beet-sugar  factories  shall  be  established  in  1812  under  the 
care  of  our  minister  of  the  interior. 

ART.  13.  These  factories  shall  be  so  arranged  as  to  produce  with  the  crop  of  1812 
to  1813,  2,000,000  kilograms  (4,409,200  pounds)  of  raw  sugar. 

o 


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